Morning Lesson December 18, 2020 Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves possibility for errors
"A Time of Contraction and a Time of Expansion" - Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #2
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yesterday we started from excerpt number 1, we talked about it you asked questions and we received good responses, good responses both from men and women that they started to understand better how we have received from the beginning the opposite egotistic form, the spiritual qualities and how we can invert them from hatred to love, and that way we can reach to the revelation of the force of love, which is the Creator. We will repeat the first excerpt and then we will continue.
Excerpt 1 Reader (01:22 - 03:40)
2. WSQ: Here is the first question, how do we nevertheless reach this, when we are already in the course of development, how can we reach these contractions giving space to the Creator, letting Him to perform the corrections? So how can we reach a contraction of our own nature, of my egoistic nature so the Creator would perform the expansion, and by what does He performs the expansion, what do I get in the place where I make the contraction over my desire to receive how does it happen, what enters, how does He enter?
3. WSQ: (08:20) How much do I need the help of the group and the help of the Creator to perform the contraction, so I can make a restriction over my selfish desires and not use those desires as before, and to what extent do I have to be operating together with the group, together with the Creator and later filling up this place which I restricted from my desires. I made a restriction over my desires so how can I later fill this up partially, as much as I can, and with the help of the group or with the help of the Creator. So how can we, each of us perform a contraction and expansion, where do we lead the person apparently does the contraction, it seemingly applies to the person, and where does the upper force lead, because He is the one who is filling up this place where there was a contraction with His filling. How do we work with that, me the group and the Creator with contraction and expansion?
4. WSQ: (15:30) How can I depict the friends as a part of my soul because the more I connect them to me, and feel that we are as one body, a single desire, a single thought I am actually going back to my own soul? How can I depict the friends in such a way as part of my soul?
5. WSQ: (17:56) Do I feel relative to yesterday that I made efforts in connection with the friends in the place where I vacate for them from my desire, so they will enter into my desire, into my heart and specifically in this desire which was filled with the connection with the friends, with their qualities, with their desires, with what they are, that they are standing in my heart, so how do I feel in that new spiritual discernments? As much as I start to recognize in this, that by this I am coming closer to the fact that this is the Creator, that behind the friends stands the Creator, and specifically after I feel them in my heart after that I feel the Creator? This is considered that the Creator stands behind the friends, did I feel it already as a result of my efforts yesterday?
6. WSQ: (21:30) Ok and if I myself were not able to perform such actions as it was required from me, to contract, to feel the friends entering my heart into that contracted space, did I feel here an act of resuscitation, revival, when the person is unconscious, some kind of a resuscitation? So did I feel that the group is performing that act of resuscitation on me that it is pressuring my chest taking the air out of me so I could start and breathing, so the group is helping me to contract so I will be able in the opposite manner start expanding, and this will come naturally. The contraction has to come from me and if I am not able to do this then the group is helping me pressuring me, pressuring me, pressuring my chest so I will start to breathe and take in the spirit of the spiritual life, spiritual air. Did I feel this, that this is what they are doing for me?
7. WSQ: (24:54) How do we want to help each other today, so the friends start breathing spiritual air, so we help them perform a contraction, press on each other's chest for everybody, obligate everybody to breathe through such action that we are familiar from our lives, as we perform the act of resuscitation? So how can the group commit to do this, how does the group intend to do this today?
8. WSQ: (27:30) How does it work, that the first 9 that I build besides my desire to receive, in order to have a spiritual Partzuf, they are all actually qualities of the friends, their thoughts, their desires which I absorb and which I make my own, and they become the first 9 in my Partzuf, in the Partzuf of my soul, and I want to feel them, I want to love them, I want to connect them to myself constantly thinking how do I fulfill them, and through them if I feel them then through them I also feel the Creator. The Creator has no Partzuf as it is said, “I dwell within my people” so as much as I connect my friends to me and I want to fulfill them, because Malchut wants to fulfill the first 9, then I feel the Creator. So how do I feel that, by what actions that we are talking about contraction and expansion, that I absorb and absorb into me through the action of the absorption of or inhaling the quality of the friends, then they become the friends that they to fulfill, so they become my first 9 that I want to bestow to them, and this is how they become the first 9 of my soul, and in that, I attain the Creator. Well I do not want to talk about it too much deliberately, you need to talk about it. So, how do I build the first 9 by absorbing the qualities and desires of the friends, this is considered that I am contracting and instead of that come the first 9, and how do I relate to them when I want to give to them, arrange them, how through them all in all I attain the Creator as the all inclusive, the sum total, I discover Him as the sum total, and then through them I can bestow to the Creator. Don't look at the fact that I am speaking not so clearly, you need to complete it, you need to talk about it, actually each one needs to feel this challenge that he is making a more complete form out of this.
9. WSQ: (32:54) I will help you, the group has to pressure each and everybody with love, this pressure by which we obligate you, force you to exhale your air, when we perform resuscitation when we press, press, seemingly we would have to inflate you, but no, instead we pressure, this is how it is done by the doctors, by this group which comes to resuscitate the person, not by helping to inhale but they press to exhale, they do press. But how do we press, we press with love so each feels that around him there are people who engage in love, in connection, and by this we deliberately also pressure him and then this love obligates the person who stopped breathing by himself, they will enter him forcefully and then when he expands through his work then he will be obligated to be expanding with love to them as well, this is how it is done. Talk about this so the group needs to pressure each with love and everybody together, and this is the act of resuscitation and the response should be for sure from the side of the person that he also responds with love, he joins this manifestation of love on his behalf towards everybody else.
Excerpt 2 Reader (36:28 - 36:57)
10. R. That is each and every part of the general soul that is yearning to adhere to the Creator, the Yashar El part in humanity, in him the whole soul exists, in each and everybody.
Reader continues (37:14 - 37:22)
10A. R. In this world the ego is pushing everything and managing everything but in spirituality love connects all.
Reader continues (37:35 - 37:46)
10B. R. By the ego of each one
Reader continues (37:49 - 37:55)
10C. R. So, the person doesn’t even feel he is in the light of the Creator.
Reader continues (38:03 - 38:09)
10D. R. So, it receives the intention to give, this means that it is cleansed.
Reader continues (38:15 - 38:56)
11. R. This is what we said before, that as much as the person can exhale the air or gets help from outside to exhale so he can inhale the spiritual air.
Reader continues (39:11 - 39:33)
11A. R. To the extent he is able to expand to that extent he feels humanity, all the souls that belong to him.
Reader continues (39:49)
12. S. Not clear if the person can work on his own accord, then why does he need to be revived?
R. The truth is that both this and that can work on the person, and that is considered in due time or in accelerated time, if you remembered there are two forms of coming closer to the purpose of creation, to correction, either we make the efforts in advance and advance towards connection, and this is a by the group as one is helping the other with the influence of the society, as Baal HaSulam writes about it, so we do these actions of resuscitation on each other in the group all the time, and if we do not do this then there is a general resuscitation machine which pressures as from the outside. This is the press of development, it is like a roller press with big wheels which press over us, deflates us, so we could be ready to refill, fill it with spiritual air.
S. So if I want to develop in hastening then I need to enter the friends?
R. We all have to do it to each other this way, but we have to do it with love as an example that we exist in love, and through envy lust and honor, we use these qualities and we awaken in each other to want this connection through love as well, because we will see that we become less than the others if you don't participate, and in this case we use the ego which does not want to feel less than the others, and this way it will be “help made against you.”
S. Where is the place of contraction then, because it seems that we have to get into the friends forcefully through love?
R. The contraction is how we pressure the friends?
S. With love and connection.
R. How could I be in contraction if I don't connect to the friends first, I have to contract myself first to have a connection between us, we work in the ten towards you and first we have to be connected in bonds of love relatively, and then by that we show you how connected we are and how there is a connection within us, so you'll see it and you will envy it and you will begin asking why are they this way and I am not, and by that we awaken you, but first we have to be connected between us.
S. How to recreate this connection earlier in the ten?
R. This is by one helping the friend, everybody is working at least artificially and of course the first action comes from the Creator by the press of development, that He is pressuring us, and then we have no choice and then we see that once again through envy, lust and honor the want to emerge from our own present state through this. I have envy at the Kabbalists, at those who are already going for it and are successful and so on, from physical envy to spiritual envy. Corporeal envy is what they have and I don't have, and that I still cannot get rid of all the physical desires compared to them.
13. S. (44:32) When we perform the contraction, how can I check that I now see the friends in the quality of the Creator that it exists outside of me?
R. The friends have to set an example and their example works on me a lot better than some action the Creator does, because with the friends, when they are seemingly at the same level as I am, on the same degree, I suddenly see them higher, then the envy is a eating me and I cannot fall asleep to the point that I cannot sleep at all, and I have to at least attain their state and this is what each and everybody feels to a certain extent. Now we are talking about how we do it in a deliberate manner in the group, so each and everybody is envious of everybody else and integrates with the others, and advances, this is why I asked if you started to feel these actions yesterday or not.
14. S. (46:06) Yesterday there was a question from the Turkish group and you replied that I need to leave only the middle point in me and relate to the first nine Sefirot, that only this point remaining in me and we have to work on the reflected light and on the Malchut and relate to the first 9, what does that mean?
R. I don't know how to go into the picture right now, repeat the question please?
S. You said we need to leave in us only that last point and work with the first 9, so that only this one, first point remains?
R. Only that point belongs to the human to the person the point of Malchut, the rest is the nine upper which comes from the qualities of the group, this is what I have to do, I need to contract myself with all the first 9, so there will be no desire from my own and I want to bestow with my first 9 Sefirot, there I receive all of the qualities of the friends and then they become for me in order to bestow and then I bestow to them this way and through them I make a place for the Creator to dwell between us, we will do it, it will become clear from the actions.
15. S. (48:22) Yesterday I took a breath before the lesson and only today I exhaled the air, can we influence each other in the ten, press each other so it will happen with greater frequency?
R. This has to be as Baal Shem Tov tells us 400 times within a minute that's what he said he referred to 400 times because it refers to the four phases opposite to Malchut but this is how we need to influence each of the friends. If we now decide that we are all influencing each and every friend in the group through demonstrating love between us, to tease him, to shake the others up, showing the friends how we are all connected, by that we will be pushing the friend forward so he will also wants to be in that advanced form. You should try and you will feel more than what the words can tell you, this is a practical Kabbalah.
S. The physical body breathes in a balanced way, with equal pace, but the spiritual actions keep increasing, how can we press each other so the Zoom meetings for example will be accelerating?
R. This will happen we increase both, the inhaling and exhaling, the exhaling of the physical air, which we then see each time then this is physical, and then we find the desire to receive in it, though it started as a spiritual and then the inhaling of new air which we think it is spiritual in order to bestow, we will each time advance in the degrees this way and what we inhale before and we thought it was a spiritual after we inhaled then we discover that it is already belonging to the corporeality, as the desire to receive is mixed in this, and then we forcefully push it out with do not want to remain in it, and then we take in some new air and this makes a new step in spirituality, a new degree of the ladder, and then we think again that this is spiritual but when we process it in us we feel that it becomes corporeal again. This is how it happens time and time again, we discover that the present degree is egoistic to a certain extent with the desire to receive mixed in it, and then we exhale and then instead of that we want to inhale a new force and new air of bestowal, this is how we advance. We are going to discover more such shapes of the spiritual progress and not necessarily just the inhaling and exhaling, more steps, there is more.
16. S. (52:13) The ten should press everybody with love, but you also said that it should be a deliberate pressure, pointed, how can we make this pressure to be there all day to evoke envy?
R. I do not know this is something you need to find, you need to search for how you can build the levels of envy between the friends so they move, so they don't sit still this is the work of the group. This is what you have to do otherwise, you will not be moving from where you are, if you do not feel that you are under the press of development of the group during the day, it is not good, this means you don't advance if you do not feel during the day that you are uncomfortable, that you do not know what to do. If you don't feel this it is not good, you have to be very goal-oriented together to influence everybody together, and if there are friends who are falling and everybody sees that they are falling then the whole group has to help them, focus on acting against it deliberately but in a gentle way. What is gentle, that the friend will feel envy towards the group that they are in a higher state and that he is already falling behind, because envy is the primary force that is pushing us, if we do not awaken envy in the friends that you have to feel that somebody is greater. Ask this from psychologist that without this we do not have a chance to progress in life, whether it is corporeal or spiritual, how did your parents tell you look at the others what they do, that look at the other kids how he behave, look at them and follow them, by that they wanted to make us grow.
17. S. (55:21) This act of resuscitation by the ten happens each day we start empty and then the moment comes when the ten penetrates the heart and it is frustrating how many hours go by until the person wakes up and go back to life and we catch ourselves where was I so far, does it have to happen this way?
R. Yes, it has to happen and the more the better.
18. S. (56:01) There is a friend who falls and that he feels this envy as anger, is this the right direction, this kind of a feeling?
R. This is not so good but at the beginning of the path it is natural, then he gets upset at seeing that you are greater, he wants you to be less so he will feel that he is not so fallen behind. Along with that he has to think that specifically feeling you as a higher means that you and the Creator are doing a half of his work. Usually according to what Rabash writes we have to raise the group artificially through all kinds of actions, so we need to see the group as greater, and I myself as 0 and another is 0 and this is how I advance. So if I see this by itself, I see it through the ten showing this me or the Creator is doing this exercise to me, I need to understand that I am given a great mercy, and by that I can advance. It will pass just keep going and let's hope and wish that everybody will be envious, upset at the others as long as we are envious and by this some completely escape the group, they don't want to feel bad, saying why do I have to be in such a group, I want to go to a different place where I feel great.
S. If he feels this anger, this rage towards a part of the group, only is it the same?
R. This is the same thing, it does not matter to feel it towards half of the group or more, there is some corporeal calculation as well, as egoistic calculation, if the group is not so homogeneous then he does not look at the whole group. We always have these friends and those friends some closer some farther it does not matter. What matters is that we have to discuss how being envy is truly the means for progress, the necessary means for progress.
19. S. (59:00) What does it mean to use lust and honor?
R. We will discuss that later both lust and honor are means to attract us to spiritual progress to make concessions in order to attain envy, lust and honor, it's just that there is negative which is envy and lust and honor are seemingly positive but both need to work in the same direction.
S. You talked about the press or the steamroller and recently I started feeling the press of development of the Creator very strongly, should the right incorporation replace the press of the Creator with the press of the group or should we have two presses....?
R. It will always be one press of development, we have to see the action of the Creator through the group as one, both in corporeality and spirituality, it's desired to see it that way and it will come, they will fall into place.
20. S. (01:00:47) What should I do so this is an action my friend will be envious of?
R. I need to show the friend in a way he doesn't know that I do it deliberately, that I have connected with the other friends and between us there is a connection of love and that we are discussing it, we are advancing in it to a form where we find the relationship of the Creator with us. We are in an advancing spiritual connection between us, this is what we need to do and demonstrate to the friend in a subtle way, so he doesn't think we're doing it deliberately. Let us say he is there and we are talking about all kinds, about the spiritual connection between us that he will be envious that there are such connections between us. Try it we need to be great actors, educators and disseminators inside the group.
Excerpt 3 Reader (01:03:33 - 01:04:44)
21. R. To feel that you are disconnected from the friends and they are disconnected from each other but the Creator wants this connection so he can appear there according to the style and power of connection between you. This is what is called going out to the field that has been blessed by the Creator and collecting all of the flaccid organs that have drooped from your soul collecting them together and turning them into a single body. You need to do that with your 9 Sefirot of your soul and in that complete body which you will somewhat put together towards you, the Creator will instill His divinity incessantly. This will become the place where the Creator can be revealed and the fountain of intelligence and high streams of light will be as a never-ending fountain. Each place on which you cast your eye means where you will feel a greater and greater ability to increase the connection between everyone, that will be blessed. All will be blessed because of you, meaning the more you will give this validity for they will bless you constantly. This is how it is, so the flaccid organs are my friends and then the whole reality, all the souls, all the worlds. And I have to group them, join them to my soul and so all of our exercises are about how to expand the area of love and in those Kelim that come together I will find the common force called love, called Creator. How can I describe the friends as pieces of my soul and also how can I hold on to that form inside of me so as much as I try to join them to me as pieces of my soul and as much as I want this shape to remain and grow by that I come to a vessel where the Creator is revealed. He fulfills it.
21A. WSQ: How do I portray my friends from which I put together the soul?
22. R. (01:12:06) Asking all of you seriously we need to do exercises and all of the groups each and every group each and every ten to make exercises to realize these one two three items that we have read in the ten. You have translation to have in its simplicity to realize in the ten practically, by that it determines how we advance towards the revelation of the Creator. We need to make the Kli as it is talking exactly about how we need to make the revelation of the Creator.
23. S. (01:13:15) The issue of envy is clear but instead of envy he has lost and honor so should we....?
R. We need to do what Baal HaSulam writes as much as possible these three quotes are all from Baal HaSulam so please read these quotes carefully and try to do it exactly in the group not paying attention to whether it's this kind of envy or that kind of envy, these thoughts are those relations, it doesn't matter, we care about doing it and as we are doing it we are discovering forces that will put all of us in the right place. It's not like one friend looks at it this way and another friend looks at it another way everyone looks at it differently. I don't take anyone into account here. Rather the upper light will put everything into place, we are being told here what to do in order for the light to work on us and it's not like we are as psychologically approaching it this way or the other way, so we have no account for human nature it is all egoistic and what kind of egoism appears doesn't matter to us we need to follow what is written here and do it and we will see how it works on everyone.
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